The present invention relates to clothes dryers having a rotating drum for tumbling the clothes, and a belt drive system therefor. In particular, the present invention relates to a belt tensioning apparatus for maintaining an adequate belt tension between a drive pulley and the drum.
It is known to provide a dryer drum having a belt wrapped around the drum and wrapped around a drive pulley which is rotatably driven by an electric motor. It is also known to provide a idler pulley spring mounted to a dryer cabinet and resiliently urged against the belt to take up slack in the belt. Such an arrangement is generally described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,300,293 and 4,488,363.
With the known idler pulley assemblies, an effective and practical method of applying lubrication to the pulley during operation is not disclosed. Additionally, it is not provided in the known idler pulley assemblies to provide lateral guides to assist locating the belt onto the pulley during assembly.